So, has there been anything that happened over the past couple of days at the 2023 World Series of Poker?
As expected, the 2023 WSOP Championship Event soared past the record for most players on Day 1D of the event. Thursday afternoon, Day 1D eclipsed the 8773-player mark to become the largest Championship Event in history. Now the question is just how high it will go – but a familiar face, Christopher Brammer, has already staked his claim to making a deep run as he emerged as the overall Day 2ABC leader.
How We Got Here
Coming into action on Thursday, it wasn’t a question of if the WSOP Championship Event would break the record, it was a question of when. Coming into the Day 1D festivities, there were 5217 players already in the books from the earlier three-Day Ones. Needing only 3556 players to eclipse the record (and with the final day multi-flight tendencies to be quite large), the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas were buzzing with anticipation for the action.
Shortly after the “shuffle up and deal” call rang out from former World Champion Chris Moneymaker, the record fell. The numbers would climb throughout the Day 1D action before finally settling at 9337, meaning over 4200 players had entered Day 1D alone. The logic can now be seen for having the Day 2D players alone from the Day 2ABC players, as the Day 1D field (4200+) was only slightly behind the Day 1A-C field (5217).
There were the usual Day 1D antics at the 2023 WSOP, too. 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth made his usual grand entrance, this time as a Hugh Jackman-influenced “P. T. Barnum” from The Greatest Showman, complete with Dan Cates as a lion and 17 models to escort him to the arena. Hellmuth actually did play some pretty good poker through the day spent under the lights of the feature table. He would end up with a bag of 108,500, which was a far cry from chip leader Nicholas Rigby:
1. Nicholas Rigby, 408,800
2. Brittney Stout, 375,500
3. Neel Murthy, 323,100
4. Chris Hunichen, 321,200
5. Carlos Leiva, 318,700
…And Where Does It Go?
With the record shattered, the only question now is just how high it will go. Day 2ABC looked to answer that question as late registration remained open for the event through the first two levels of the day. Another couple of hundred players decided to drop their $10K in the pool, bringing the total numbers over the 9500 mark. IF – and it isn’t out of the question – there is another mass outpouring of players on Day 2D and its first two levels, there is the outside chance that the 10,000-player mark will be exceeded.
Perhaps the biggest news from the Day 2ABC action was that there will not be a repeat champion in 2023. Espen Jorstad busted from the tournament shortly before the close of Level 7, flopping a set of sixes against Julian Aguirre. Aguirre, however, found his way to a straight that was able to defeat the defending World Champion, ensuring that Johnny Chan’s feat of back-to-back victories will last for yet another year.
Day 1C chip leader Christopher Brammer is not letting anyone down with his performance. Coming into Day 2ABC, Brammer was behind only Day 1A chip leader Yehuda Dayan at the opening gun. While Dayan was unable to sustain his stack (he would lose a few chips, dropping down to 360K), Brammer thrived under the conditions and would end Day 2ABC at the top of the mountain, where he will watch the Day 2D field try to catch him.
1. Christopher Brammer (United Kingdom), 879,000
2. Julio Belluscio (Argentina), 825,500
3. Bequir Salihu (USA), 801,000
4. John Sofillas (USA), 780,000
5. Nick Marchington (United Kingdom), 716,000
6. Heitor Saraiva (USA), 665,500
7. Sachin Joshi (United Kingdom), 635,500
8. Andrew Hulme (United Kingdom), 610,000
9. Patrik Antonius (Finland), 584,500
10. Nikita Luther (India), 572,500
Day 2D will be stepping to the felt this afternoon, and both the tables and the cages should be replete with action ahead of the close of late registration. By the midpoint of this afternoon, we’ll know the official numbers for the 2023 WSOP Championship Event (probably close to 10K, if not over), the prize pool (north of $100 million?), and how much the eventual champion will be paid (more than the $12 million Jamie Gold received in 2006?). There’s still plenty to get excited about at the World Series of Poker, as the final couple of weeks play out.
